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Buffalo police save three more drug addicts by using Narcan

Just two weeks after Buffalo police saved three drug addicts from fatally overdosing, two more unconscious addicts in South Buffalo were saved by officers administering the opiate antidote Narcan, authorities said Thursday.

The drama began just after 11 p.m. Wednesday when a woman visited the Clinton Street apartment of her two friends and found them collapsed on the floor with hypodermic needles also on the floor, according to South District Lt. Brian Britzzalaro.

“I observed a female and a male subject unconscious and barely breathing and turning blue,” Britzzalaro said, adding that Police Officers Kris Tomasula and Lamar Reeves immediately squirted Narcan into the nostrils of the two individuals.

“Almost instantly,” Britzzalaro said, the woman’s “breathing started to get a little deeper and her color began to come back.”

The man’s condition also rapidly improved, he said, breathing “a lot more regularly and his color was also returning.”

The needles, police said, were believed to have contained heroin.

The week of Jan. 4 police responded to three separate incidents across the city, all of them involving young suburban residents who had come into Buffalo to get high and overdosed, but were revived by the antidote, which counters the effects of opiates, which can halt breathing.

“Our officers have embraced the Narcan program and I believe these latest two incidents brings the number of lives saved to 10 since we started the program last year,” Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said.

Describing the two overdose addicts from Wednesday as on “death’s doorstep,” Britzzalaro said, “I would like to commend these two officers for their keen sense and alertness in keeping these two people alive.”

email: lmichel@buffnews.com

Lou Michel– Lou Michel is the main crime reporter for The Buffalo News and co-author of the best-seller, "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing." He has received numerous state and national journalism awards.